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Aperture Science Enrichment Center
The Aperture Laboratories are the headquarters of Aperture Science and the main location of Portal and Portal 2. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, the facility is monitored by the computer GLaDOS. History Pre-GLaDOS era Built in Cleveland, Ohio, USA sometime after the founding of Aperture Science in 1953,File:Borealis plans 01.png the Aperture Laboratories is the main headquarters for the company. It is unknown if the same complex is used during the time Aperture was a shower curtain manufacturer. In 1974, after contracting mercury poisoning, Aperture CEO Cave Johnson lays out a three-tier plan for the future of his company:ApertureScience.comAperture Science: A History on Game Informer the Heimlich Counter-Maneuver, the Take-A-Wish Foundation, and most notably, the 'Portal' project, which gives birth to the development of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Testing for the 'Portal' project calls for the construction of the Enrichment Center, a large area of the Aperture Laboratories consisting of Test Chambers and offices, where Test Subjects test the ASHPD. In 1986, Aperture Science hears of similar portal technology being developed by Black Mesa. To counter this, construction of the first Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS) begins in Aperture Laboratories, with the aims to accelerate the 'Portal' project.ApertureScience.com GLaDOS' control In 1996, the Disk Operating System parts parts of GLaDOS are completed, and work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component.ApertureScience.com During that time, the Aperture Science Red Phone plan is implemented in case GLaDOS appears to become sentient and godlike, requiring an employee to sit by a red phone on a desk in GLaDOS chamber's entrance hall.Portal commentary GLaDOS is fully completed in May 1998,ApertureScience.comAperture Science: A History on Game Informer and is switched on during the Aperture Science's first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work-day. Within several seconds of being active, GLaDOS becomes self-aware, locks down the entire facility, hoping to seize control, and floods the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. Quickly, the Aperture employees fit her with a Morality Core to insure she is kept under control. GLaDOS still manages to wrestle control of the facility from her now trapped creators however, and is soon in full control of the Enrichment Center, with several Test Subjects as her rats, including Aperture employee Doug Rattmann. GLaDOS aims to beat Black Mesa in the race for portal technology. However, she effectively loses this race when the Black Mesa Incident occurs mere days later.Aperture Science: A History on Game Informer ''Portal'' era Just over twenty years after GLaDOS' takeover, Chell is awakened in her Relaxation Vault, and guided as a Test Subject by GLaDOS, utilizing the completed Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Chell finds the facility showing clear signs of decay and neglect, with GLaDOS showing signs of instability. Chell later comes across hidden alcoves in the chamber walls, where desperate messages are written on the walls by Doug Rattmann, who seemed to have gone slightly mad during his testing. At the conclusion of Chell's testing, instead of the cake that was promised, she is met with an incinerator, which she narrowly escapes. It is here that GLaDOS reveals her true murderous nature, but attempts to convince Chell to return to the testing area and wait for the planned "party associate". Chell ignores her, and makes her way through the decaying maintenance areas of the facility, where none have clearly been for years. After much ambushes by GLaDOS and her Sentry Guns, Chell finally finds herself in GLaDOS' main control center. After destroying GLaDOS' Morality Core, the robot, now free of her murderous restraints, begins to once again flood the building with neurotoxins. However, Chell manages to incinerate the A.I.'s Personality Cores before being consumed by the toxins, and GLaDOS is seemingly destroyed while Chell is transported outside to the parking lot, where she is dragged away by the previously mentioned party associate, and brought back inside in stasis.Game Informer, April 2010 issue Despite her apparent destruction however, GLaDOS files a letter to Chell, claiming to be "still alive" and that she is not angry with her. GLaDOS then activates a series of Personality Cores and re-captures the laboratories, which were heavily damaged after GLaDOS' explosion.Game Informer, April 2010 issue ''Portal 2'' era Hundreds of years pass while the facility is falling apart, with Test Chambers crumbling and foliage rampant throughout. The Personality Cores become restless, showing concern for the ruined state of the complex, and new Test Chambers are built. One such core, Wheatley, awakens Chell from stasis, and convinces her to escape the facility, bringing Wheatley with her. Chell agrees, and the two set out across the building complex. After navigating through the maintenance areas, with Wheatley babbling incessantly, the pair find an elevator, which the core attempts to activate. It begins to descend however, and before Wheatley can stop it, the two find themselves facing GLaDOS, who sits in ruin in the remains of her control room. GLaDOS, bitter towards Chell, forces her to resume her tests with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Due to the state of the facility however, GLaDOS is trying to keep the Test Chambers stable at the same time, so reluctantly forces Chell to proceed into the maintenance areas to pass, where the latter is free from GLaDOS' watch for the first time.Game Informer, April 2010 issue Overview Enrichment Center The computer-aided Enrichment Center is the main Aperture Laboratories facility. It is used to test one of Aperture Science's most successful achievements, the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Test Chambers .]] The Enrichment Center contains numerous "Test Chambers" where Test Subjects are trained to perform simple to complicated tasks with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. The tests are monitored by GLaDOS and security cameras. Aperture Science scientists can watch the tests in small offices spread around the test chambers. Each test subject is accommodated in a "Relaxation Vault" with no privacy, as it is set within a test chamber, with transparent walls, and connected to the outside with a portal. A Relaxation Vault typically features a bed, a radio, a toilet saying "Your business is appreciated." after being flushed, and a small table. Located in Test Chamber 00, Chell's vault also contains on the small table a "Portal Test Sequence - Hazard Identification Card" clipboard, and an empty cup. A notable feature among the Test Chambers is the stark atmosphere. All of the walls and floors are a plain gray, and the overall feeling is one of a clinic or clean room. This motif continues until Chell escapes, at which point the atmosphere becomes dark and foreboding while Chell navigates through the innards of the Enrichment Center. The known Test Chambers range from Test Chamber 00 to 19. Maintenance areas These areas are in a very bad condition, suggesting they have been abandoned for a while. There can be seen a pneumatic tube network (with occasional broken tubes) that brings the Weighted Companion Cube and Weighted Storage Cubes into the Test Chambers, elevators bringing the Sentry Turrets and other machinery. During her tests and then her escape, Chell also comes across Ratman dens while going through the maintenance areas. These dens often have obscure scribblings and advice on how to advance. Offices The offices are rooms that the Aperture Science staff used to watch Test Subjects executing their task in the Test Chambers. They contain chairs and computers and seem to have been last used long ago. Computers seem to be stuck into some sort of loop, some are disconnected, their cases open, and several chairs are knocked over. Clipboards and empty cups are scattered on the desks. Other offices contain projection rooms where a looping slideshow called "Dollar$ and Sense: Competing with Black Mesa for DoD and Government-wide Acquisition Contracts" can be seen twice. GLaDOS' chamber GLaDOS is stored in a large, elevated area, suspended from the ceiling with electrical wiring surrounding her. In the small lobby area, the Aperture Science Red Phone is located next to several computers. Under a concealed door, a Rocket Sentry is kept, seemingly for security, and numerous monitor screens line the walls and encircle GLaDOS. Trivia *The projectors used for the "Dollar$ and Sense" slideshow appear to be based on the model LC-XT1 by the Eiki company. The texture file includes a remote not seen in-game. *One of the ambient sounds heard in the Test Chambers is recycled from one of the Ravenholm's. *"Arbeit Laboratories" ("Arbeit" = "work" in German) can be seen on some crates inside the [[Borealis (cut location)|original Borealis]]. It is possible this name was recycled into "Aperture Laboratories". Gallery ''Portal'' Concept art File:Cake steam poster.jpg|Cake poster. File:Glados room concept.jpg|GLaDOS' room. File:Aperture room concept.jpg|Ditto. File:Glados concept3.jpg|GLaDOS detail. File:Glados concept1.jpg|GLaDOS detail. File:Glados concept2.jpg|GLaDOS detail, with Chell. Pre-release screenshots File:Portalbeta012.jpg|Early puzzles. File:Portalbeta01234.jpg|Ditto. File:Portalbeta0123456.jpg|Testing the Rocket Sentry on GLaDOS, using Rollermines as a placeholder. File:Portal early.jpg|Early Test Chamber 00 with placeholder props. File:Portalgun beta.jpg|The early Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device and Weighted Companion Cube in an early Test Chamber 13. Retail screenshots File:Test chamber 00.jpg|Test Chamber 00. File:Testchamber 01.jpg|Test Chamber 01. File:Testchmb02.jpg|Test Chamber 02. File:Testchmb03.jpg|Test Chamber 03. File:Testchmb 04.jpg|Test Chamber 04. File:Chell in-game.jpg|Chell in Test Chamber 04. File:Testchmb 05.jpg|Test Chamber 05. File:Testchmb06.jpg|Test Chamber 06. File:Testchmb07.jpg|Test Chamber 07. File:Testchmb08.jpg|Test Chamber 08. File:Testchmb09.jpg|Test Chamber 09. File:Testchmb10.jpg|Test Chamber 10. File:Testchmb11.jpg|The enhanced Portal Gun in Test Chamber 11. File:Testchmb12.jpg|Test Chamber 12. File:Testchmb13.jpg|Test Chamber 13. File:Testchmb14.jpg|Test Chamber 14. File:Testchmb15.jpg|Test Chamber 15. File:Testchmb a 110027.JPG|Turrets in Test Chamber 16. File:Testchmb a 110024.JPG|Rat Man's den near Test Chamber 16. File:Testchmb16 food.JPG|Test Chamber 17. File:Testchmb017.jpg|Test Chamber 17. File:Testchmb17.jpg|Ditto. File:Testchmb a 130032.jpg|The furnace waiting for the Companion Cube in Test Chamber 17. File:Testchmb a 13001.jpg|Rat Man's den near Test Chamber 17. File:Ratman Den2.jpg|Ditto. File:Testchmb a 140008.jpg|Test Chamber 18. File:Testchmb a 140009.jpg|Ditto. File:Testchmb19.1.JPG|Test Chamber 19. File:Testchmb19 signs.JPG|Signs indicating that after Test Chamber 19 comes the exit and cake. File:Testchmb19 furnace.JPG|The furnace right after the signs. File:Testchmb a 150004.jpg|Typical maintenance area at the end of Test Chamber 19. File:Testchmb a 150005.jpg|Typical messy, decaying Enrichment Center office. File:Testchmb a 1500002.jpg|Typical maintenance area. File:Escape 000006.jpg|Ditto. File:Escape 020000.jpg|Desk and red telephone in GLaDOS' room. File:Escape 020028.jpg|GLaDOS in her room. File:Escape 020029.jpg|Ditto. File:Rocket Sentry.jpg|The Rocket Sentry. File:Escape 020031.jpg|GLaDOS is destroyed. File:Escape 020032.jpg|Ditto. File:Escape 020002.jpg|The remains of GLaDOS near Aperture Laboratories' entrance. File:Escape 020070.jpg|The cake. File:Background20003.jpg|The cake in GLaDOS' room. File:Wet floor sign.png|Unused wet floor sign, humorously referencing the film 300, and the infamous meme "This is Sparta!". While no model exists, the texture file is located in the folder "props_facemovie". ''Portal 2'' Concept art File:Chell facing glados concept.jpg File:Chell jungle.jpg File:Portal 2 isometric concept.jpg File:Portal 2 beta destroyed chamber.jpg File:Portal 2 beta destroyed chamber2.jpg File:Portal 2 beta ruined chamber3.jpg File:Wheatley floor Test Chamber 08.jpg File:Portal 2 beta rubble.jpg File:Portal 2 beta rubble2.jpg File:Portal 2 beta gladosroom puzzles.jpg Pre-release screenshots File:Wheatley floor Test Chamber 08.jpg|A ruined test chamber with Wheatley lying on the floor. File:Wheatleyfull.jpg File:Wheatley catwalk.jpg|Wheatley being held by Chell. File:Ap maintenance area p2.jpg|Parts of the ruined maintenance areas. File:Area under chamber.jpg|Maintenance area under a test chamber. File:Glados outside jungle.jpg|GLaDOS in the ruined Enrichment Center. File:Glados outside jungle2.jpg|Ditto. File:Turret laser ruined chamber.jpg File:Interactive stairs.jpg|Test chamber. File:Interactive floor.jpg|Ditto. File:Moving walls.jpg|Ditto. File:Thermal beam redirection cube.jpg|Ditto. Portal 2 beta ruined chamber 7.jpg|Ditto, with a Personality Core on the right, possibly Wheatley. List of appearances *ApertureScience.com *''Portal'' *''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' *''Portal'' ARG *''Portal 2'' Notes and references Category:Portal Category:Aperture Science locations Category:Locations Category:Jeremy Bennett designs Category:Portal 2